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Blunt Instrument by Amy BloomThe case of the bludgeoned lecturer has all of Cromwell University reeling, even though the elderly Professor Bullfinch wasn't particularly well-liked. His ornery nature and Old World approach to campus politics ruffled more than a few feathers over the years, and present tensions within his department mean there are more suspects than mourners in the wake of his death. And the murder weapon--a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne--does seem to indicate that the attack may have been academically motivated. Enter Dell Chandler, the failed English professor turned self-taught private detective whom Dr. Cutty calls in to investigate the crime. She has the background to tease out the motives among the staff and just enough experience to conduct a thorough inquiry. If she solves the case before the cops do, the university could keep the whole thing quiet, avoiding sensational media about the dark side of campus life. But to do so, she'll have to dodge her own demons from her past life as a disgraced academic.
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Children of the Wild by Kevin PowersEwer's Rock, Virginia, 1917. Roy Young is restless, eager to leave this isolated rural valley for university and return with the technical knowledge to modernize his family's farm and bring them properly into the twentieth century. Samantha Hatton, the minister's daughter and Roy's best friend since childhood, knows that both Roy and the town expect them to marry. But Samantha, a daring and ambitious young woman, hungers for more. Above them on the mountain, tending to a lost herd of cattle, is silent Ennis Duke, the mysterious wild boy whose arrival in the valley will upend Ewer's Rock's understanding of itself and its place in the world. Within a year, the lives of these three young people will be dramatically transformed. America has joined the Great War, and Roy and Ennis feel duty-bound to join the fight. In the crucible of conflict, thousands of miles from the familiarity of home, the two men forge a fierce bond. Meanwhile, back in Virginia, Samantha's love and courage endure unthinkable sacrifice in a corner of the world fractured by violence.
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New York Times Bestselling Series
When the Girls accept a very strange invitation to a lavish party on a remote island estate, they find that murder has a way of ruining even the most glamorous of evenings. The invite delivered to 6151 Richmond Street was short on details, only promising to celebrate the greatest artist of the century and accompanied by a jewel-encrusted brooch--the whole package a brand of mysterious opulence that another Saturday night of gin rummy just can't match. Blanche Devereaux's passionate dalliances are as plentiful as hot Southern nights, and surely one can't be expected to remember all of one's suitors. But when the Girls disembark the party's ferry at a small Biscayne Bay island and meet their secretive host, the memories come flooding back: she a Radio City Rockette in her twenties, he the poor artist who could offer her nothing but his love. Fate drove them apart, but Declan, now a famous artist El Toro, professes that Blanche has always been his muse. Featured prominently in his artworks and central to El Toro's return to the apex of the art world, Blanche is thrilled to have been such an inspiring figure to this man. But looking around at a party filled with those who have made their livings off the artist's fame--his assistant, his art dealer, his greatest critic, and more--Dorothy isn't so sure they're welcome on the island after all. When a tropical storm knocks power out across the island, an optimistic Blanche proclaims that everyone looks better by candlelight anyway. But when Declan is found dead the next morning, all eyes are on her, his supposed muse of thirty-plus years. Trapped at the estate with the other guests--suspects all--the Girls must band together to find the true killer and get back to pleasant evenings of card games and cheesecake. |
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Earth 7 by Deb Olin UnferthWell, that's about it for the story of planet Earth, poor Earth, reduced to not much more than a piece of burnt coal. But, as Deb Olin Unferth shows in her latest electrifying novel, life and love persist, even in the most unexpected, inhospitable places.
Two women meet on a beach of artificial sand. One was raised in a pod in the ocean and the other may or may not be a robot. Their love--or any love--seems so unlikely. Earth is severely depopulated. Some people have given up, gone off to Mars. Others pursue eternal life as digital code. And yet others, like Dylan and Melanie, are holdouts--and some of those holdouts are constructing a vast molecular collection in hopes that a future person may be alive to make a new Earth. Foolhardy? Misguided? Quixotic? Probably. But what can a human (or a robot) do? By the end of Unferth's wild, poetic, revelatory, and slyly philosophical novel, the reader has traveled to the very edges of the cosmos as a soul globule and between grains of sand as a microscopic tardigrade.
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Hemlock Bay by Martin EdwardsThe new seaside resort of Hemlock Bay offers something for everyone. For families, it's the ideal summertime playground for kids and parents alike. For artists, the seascapes are peerless. For swindlers and blackmailers, it's the perfect place to craft a new identity. And for murderers? That's what Rachel Savernake, the enigmatic heiress and brilliant amateur sleuth, is about to discover. When crime-beat journalist Jacob Flint receives a visit from a fortune teller who insists he's had a vision of a murder soon to occur in Hemlock Bay, Jacob consults with Rachel to get her take on the man's outlandish claim. Rachel is so intrigued, she rents a cottage at the seaside resort where an artist she admires also happens to be spending the summer. Meanwhile, mild-mannered accountant Basil Palmer is en route to Hemlock Bay, determined to murder a man he's never met--a man he holds responsible for his beloved wife's death six months prior. Could this be the murder foretold by the fortune teller? Whether pre-destined or plotted, a murder does occur. But as Rachel plunges deeper and deeper into the morass of mysterious events and suspects, and as alibis exonerate each suspect one by one, she begins to wonder whether she is equal to the case. Has Rachel finally mired herself in mystery she can't solve?
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Land by Maggie O'FarrellThe year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tom, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tom is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and the lives of those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tom, and how is Liam, only ten, going to finish the mapping and get them both home?
Land is a novel about separation and reunion, tragedy and recovery, colonization and rebellion. It is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away. As spellbinding and varied as the landscape that inspired it, Land is, above all, a story of survival, for our times and for all time.
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Summer's Never Over by Darby BozemanIn this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.
Five years ago, Greer left her family's summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she'd never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp--and ended with Greer's friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer's been fleeing from the grief ever since. But then Greer's mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread's Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends--one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over--and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend. Greer and Margo didn't leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph's death in that horrific fire was an accident--and she's on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave. Greer has to make a choice: keep the Cove's secrets and her own, or finally face the truth about that summer.
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Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann LarsonGrocery stores may all seem the same. But the supermarket as an institution is anything but ordinary or one-dimensional. "At the supermarket where I worked, I found a microcosm of society: a place of brutality and violence as well as solidarity and the promise of change." Unemployed and looking for work during the pandemic, journalist and activist Ann Larson found a job as a cashier at a supermarket in Utah. Though she had written about low-wage work for years, nothing could have prepared her for what she experienced. Informed by her time behind the register, Cleanup on Aisle Five is Larson's deep dive into supermarkets and how they operate from the inside out: from the low-wage workers stocking the shelves and the customers coming through at all hours, to the communities these stores serve and the larger capitalist forces and corporate interests at play that control how we shop for food. In the process, she chronicles the evolution of the grocery store, unpacks the political implications of the battles between shoppers and staff, and invites us to imagine grocery stores as places where one can foster community and even equity--if we can separate food distribution from profit motive. Deeply reported and refreshingly insightful, Larson follows the interactions between the workers, including Stanley who can't afford a sandwich, Nick who doesn't have health insurance, and Scarlet who is all out of patience, and customers, including the old lady who finds comfort in tidying the shelves to the one homeless guy who only comes in to use the facilities. From the unforgettable characters to the common challenges we face when it comes to food, Cleanup in Aisle Five will forever change the way we look at grocery stores.
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Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men's Lives by Darby SaxbeIn Dad Brain, field-leading psychologist Darby Saxbe, PhD, explains how becoming a father changes men, from their bodies and brain architecture to their hormones and sense of purpose. Inspired by her relationship with her dad, Saxbe has studied fathers and families for over twenty years.
In her first book, she takes readers behind the scenes of her new research and around the world, from hunter-gatherers in the Congo to contemporary suburban dads, and into her pioneering studies of how parenthood shapes men's brains and lives. Readers may be surprised to learn that, in addition to altering a dad's hormones and health (yes, men experience postpartum depression, and dad bod is real), parenthood can also benefit men. Dads who spend time with their kids sharpen their paternal instincts and even show more youthful brains in later life. Dads' unique approach to play makes kids more resilient, and fathers bring new insights to workplaces and build better societies. Ultimately, fatherhood can help men discover a richer, more connected, and more meaningful life.
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Ferris Bueller...You're My Hero: The Story of the World's Most Famous Day Off by Jason KlammAs Ferris Bueller's Day Off celebrates its 40th anniversary, go behind the scenes as Hughes shot over a million feet of film before the movie was even halfway finished, navigated studio panic, and turned controlled chaos into cinematic magic. Built from 125 new, exclusive interviews, this all-access account features candid stories from Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Cindy Pickett, James Hughes (John's son), producers, soundtrack musicians, parade attendees, museum staff, high-school actors--even the legendary school-bus Gummy Bear Girl ("They've been in my pocket. They're real warm and soft"). Additional Hughes alumni, including Jon Cryer and Andrew McCarthy, weigh in on the lasting impact of the film and its creator. Featuring never-before-seen photos and unforgettable on-set stories, this book reveals how Ferris Bueller's Day Off broke the rules, bent reality, and turned skipping school into a masterclass in rebellion for an entire generation.
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New York Times Bestselling Author
We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising economic inequality, widespread unrest, and more. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are undergoing what every complex civilization before us has--systemic collapse. So how do we continue to live as sensitive humans amidst such a tumultuous shift? What does life look like when the systems we rely on deteriorate? Should we be having kids? How do we make financial decisions? Should we be prepping? And, most importantly, how do we avoid succumbing to doom and despair?
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists, and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully, and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us--to eat the stars--and to return to our humanity once again. I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom, and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise, and down-to-earth voice, Wilson creates a space for readers to confront their fears and anxieties about an uncertain future, guiding them toward one rooted in truth, hope, justice, creativity, community, and to step up as warriors and meet the moment. We are in what we were warned about for decades. But from a crisis comes stunning possibility. |
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Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution by Katherine GrandjeanThe chilling true story of a brutal string of deaths on the post-Revolutionary frontier that reveal the violence at the heart of the young United States In Cold Blood for the 1790s . . . Part true crime, part western, part ghost story, Kingdom of Devils plumbs the dark underbelly of the American West in the years following the Revolution.
A harrowing series of murders begins. The first body, discovered by cattle drovers, lies bloody at the bottom of a ridge. Then another--a dead boy staring up from a sinkhole. Bodies turn up along roadsides, stuffed into brush. They float to the surface of muddy brooks.
For nine terrifying months, over hundreds of miles of Kentucky and Tennessee countryside, the terror unfolds. The killers--two men with hazy backgrounds--are brothers, named Wiley and Micajah Harp. The Harps killed dozens, but why they did it has eluded folklorists and historians for generations. Almost every story imagines that their motive was pure bloodlust, but for historian Katherine Grandjean, that's too simple. Instead, she uses the Harp murders to reveal the dark side of the young United States' independence. These were uncertain and dangerous years--a time when the fledgling federal government could do little to protect its citizens. And if the American Revolution was liberating, it was also deeply destabilizing, politically and socially. Even as it built up some men, it stacked the deck against others, punishing them with volatile markets, lost safety nets, and shattered aspirations.
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The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy by Matthew CampbellAmidst the chaos of Cambodia's brutal genocide, a new crime wave emerged--one that would sweep across borders and entangle the world's most prestigious art institutions. Priceless treasures of the ancient Khmer Empire, the civilization that produced Angkor Wat, vanished from sacred temples, looted by smugglers and trafficked into the hands of elite collectors. At the center of it all was a man named Douglas Latchford. Known later as Dynamite Doug for the ruthless methods used to extract statues from temple ruins, Latchford orchestrated one of history's most audacious cultural heists. From dusty Cambodian villages to the glittering auction houses of London and New York and institutions like the Met, he played a double game--presenting himself as an expert on Khmer art while secretly flooding the market with stolen antiquities. In The Man Who Stole the Gods, award-winning journalist Matthew Campbell unravels the gripping story of Latchford's criminal enterprise, and a global conspiracy of greed and collusion--one that involves some of the world's most powerful museums and collectors.
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The Proof in the Code: How a Truth Machine Is Transforming Math and AI by Kevin HartnettThe inside story of Lean, a computer program that answers the age-old question: How do you know if something is true? It began as an obscure bug-checking program at Microsoft Research developed by a lone computer engineer named Leo de Moura. Then an unlikely crew of mathematical misfits caught wind of it and began to adopt it with messianic zeal. Their goal was to create a truth machine that could provide the rarest of all commodities in life: a complete, 100 percent guarantee that something is true. Its name: Lean.
As the movement grew and strengthened the program's capabilities, it drew in two of the world's most prominent mathematicians: Peter Scholze and Terence Tao. Google DeepMind, Meta AI, and other tech firms started using the program to supercharge computer reasoning. Now it's remaking the multi-thousand-year history of how mathematicians work, collaborate, and assess truth, while charting a new path in the march toward machine intelligence.
In The Proof in the Code, Kevin Hartnett tells the definitive story of the birth and rise of Lean, and how a growing movement is transforming the enterprise of mathematics and ushering in a new era of human-computer collaboration.
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Onondaga Free Library
4840 West Seneca Tpk Syracuse, NY 13215
Hours:
Monday 9:00am-8:30pm Tuesday 9:00am-8:30pm Wednesday 9:00am-8:30pm Thursday 9:00am-8:30pm Friday 10:00am-5:00pm Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm* Sunday CLOSED*Summer Saturday Hours:
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